Join me in Tuscany in 2024!
Spring 2025, dates TBA soon
Montisi (Siena), Tuscany
Short Film Writing Retreat with Matt Harrison
In this 7 full days we will be guided by UCLA and CalArts film professor Matt Harrison in the writing of a cinematic, image-driven short film that will hit all the requirements to tour the festival circuit. I love Matt’s teaching style and have taken his courses several times while at UCLA Extension, enjoying his fun and creativity-shaking assignments and his informal, super fun teaching style.
This course is held in English and Italian.
What’s included:
daily writing workshops with Matt
8 nights in an historical, elegant villa in single or double occupancy rooms with private bathroom
daily breakfast, home cooked lunch by a local chef, and dinner
unlimited local wine, drinks and snacks
nightly film screenings and group discussions
shuttle from and to airport
Experiences with locals
Investment: $ 3850 per person in double occupancy room. Early bird by February 15 2024 (extended deadline) enjoys a $500 discount. Partial scholarships available for students.
Single occupancy room: $ 4550 per person. All rooms have a private bathroom.
October 13-21, 2024
Montisi (Siena), Tuscany
Creative Life Art Retreat for Women
This early Fall week will be all about painting and creating a body of work inspired by the village, the natural landscapes, botanicals and local birds and animals, along with experiencing life with the locals and enjoying the deliciousness of the territory’s food and wine traditions. Daily we will experience painting workshops aimed at opening up your creativity and helping you tap in the fun of painting with different media: creative watercolor, pastels, acrylics and drawing with charcoal, pen and ink, pastels and pencils. All materials will be available to you but you’re welcome to bring yours if you prefer.
A friendly, supportive environment will encourage musings on creativity and what it means to “live life as a work of art”: with suggested readings, walks, yoga, screenings and conversations we will share tools that inspire us and helps us stay focussed towards a life we truly savor and enjoy.
Every day there will be yoga to open and close the day for those who wish to, and they morning will start after a healthy breakfast with a painting session with me in which we will play and explore unusual, quirky subject matters using various techniques and tools I am fond of.
We will gather for lunch in our lovely villa where a local chef will cook for us using local, organic ingredients from local sources and farms, and after an afternoon rest in the garden or in our rooms we will have time to continue exploring painting, to take a walk in the olive orchards, to go on a local adventure and to have an evening aperitivo. One time we will go to Siena to experience the magnificence of Mediaeval architecture and painting; another we will take a cooking class to learn some recipes specific to this area.
Dinners will all be where we can share our experiences and thoughts over delicious food prepared just for us.
The day will close, for those who wish to do so, with a gentle yoga and meditation for deep, restful sleep.
This is your week to immerse yourself in Beauty, painting and restoration of the senses with a small group of like-minded, inspiring women. Your sketchbook will be forever a memory of your insights and discoveries.
We will speak both English and Italian.
What’s included:
8 nights in a single or double occupancy bedroom in an historical villa in the village with private bathroom
A daily art workshop
Daily solo studio time
Daily breakfasts, local home cooked lunch, and dinner
Daily yoga and meditation (if you wish)
Unlimited local wine, drinks and snacks
Guided visit to Siena
Shuttle from and to airport
Cooking class
All materials: acrylic paint, easels, sketchbooks, paintbrushes, pastels, and anything needed for the workshops. Students are welcome to bring their own materials also, but everything will be provided.
Investment: $ 3875 per person in double occupancy room; $ 4275 in single occupancy room. Early bird by April 30, 2024 enjoys a $200 discount. Scholarships available, and also special 1 + 1 (bring a friend) discount. Message me for info!
LEARN MORE: Please submit the form below with any questions and we will get back to you asap!
THE TEAM
SILVIA GALLINI
Artist, teacher, filmmaker
This is me, you’re in my website :) You can browse around to see my paintings and some of my life path so far. I am Italian, born and raised in the North of Italy near Milan, and studied Italian and Filmmaking both in Italy and in Los Angeles, where I received an MFA in Film Directing from the American Film Institute, one of the States’ top film schools. Meanwhile I also studied Painting privately with Joe Blaustein, an expressionist master of Southern California , and became a painter and an art teacher as well.
Today I live in a magical little village in Tuscany in the Valdorcia region, and I teach, paint and organize retreats.
Let me introduce you to my friends and collaborators on these retreats:
OUTI HARMA
Artist, teacher, dancer
Outi is a Finnish artist based in Los Angeles, with over 20 years of improvisational painting that merge the visible with the invisible, movement, dance and performance art. Her artwork is characterized by her passion for female empowerment and female archetypes. Her improvisational approach to painting allows images to appear spontaneously as she mixes and plays with colors, and her workshops as well as her artwork take you to playful, childlike realms to spiritual and psychological depths where the soul has room to expand.
To learn more about Outi and her magical work, visit her website:
LARISSA ALICE
Yoga teacher, opera singer
Larissa is an international chamber music soprano and a yoga teacher based in Bologna, Italy. She grew up between the Canaries island and Germany and speaks fluent German, Spanish, Italian and English. She is a certified Akhanda Yoga instructor. Akhanda Yoga is a holistic contemporary version of Hatha Yoga integrating ancient teachings of Raja, Tantra and kundalini yoga created my Himalayan master Yogrishi Vishvketu.
